


The Bridge that Crosses

by treefrogie84



Series: The Wind That Shakes [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M, Samhain done right, Talking To Dead People, kinda sorta necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 08:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20850689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: On Samhain night, the dead are close. If you know how, you can bring the dead near and converse with them.Cas hasn't seen Gabe since he died, years ago. It's time they have a chat about their family and maybe forgiveness.





	The Bridge that Crosses

**Author's Note:**

> A couple notes before we get to the fic:  
1) this isn't the time stamp for [A Secret Gate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863346) I thought I was going to write. But it's the one that demanded to be written when I started working on Spooktober 2019  
2) the ritual is based, vaguely, on ADF core ritual. Because I don't know enough about Wicca to do it properly  
3) Spooktober Prompt "Practicing Witchcraft"

Dean takes a deep breath and blows it out, watching Sam and Charlie lay out the circle in the yard. Jess and Eileen are inside still, doing… something, he’s not sure what, but they promised to clean up the kitchen when they’re done, so he also can’t really bring himself to care. The only one he’s missing is Cas and he’s around.

He _thinks _Cas is around anyway. He’s still getting used to this whole sync and locked thing, or having enough magic available for it to matter.

“Dean!” Sam waves him over. “Grab those candles, will ya?”

Carefully, Dean sets the candles down at the marked positions, sending a brief tendril of thought towards Cas and getting a response back: jogging, trying to deal with his own anxiety before it combines with Dean’s, awesome. “Need anything else?”

Sam shakes his head. “Just waiting for the snacks and Cas. He alright?”

“First big holiday.”

“Right.” Sam reaches down, moves one of the circle markers so it’s better aligned before pushing his hand through his hair. “Look, if we should have done this back in September...”

“You and Eileen both said that the chances of this working are better if we do it now.”

“Or April-- the year tipping the other way should work too.”

“We need all the help we can get,” Dean says quietly. “I really don’t know if this is the right thing to do, even if Cas says he wants it.”

“We really don’t,” Sam points out. “You and Cas alone are more than powerful enough to do this, let alone all of us.”

Dean snorts and glances over the yard, the circle laid out amid the oaks. They’d planted two more last month, some coven ceremony he still doesn’t completely understand. “We’d just fuck it up.”

Sam frowns before shaking his head and heading towards house. Dean follows him at a distance, still trying to get a grip on why he feels so off. It’s not the ritual, or the spell, he thinks, it’s the lifetime of being told he wasn’t good enough.

He’s sitting on the bed when Cas gets home, sweaty hair spiked up all over the place like he’s been yanking on it while he jogged.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Heyya, Cas.” Dean reaches over, latches onto Cas’s hand and pulls him over to the bed. “Have a good run?”

“It was necessary. I don’t know about good.” Cas shrugs, stepping between Dean’s spread legs and wrapping his arms around Dean’s shoulders. “Settled my head though, which we both needed.”

Dean nods. They’ve been locked together almost since they met, and while they’ve mostly adjusted to having a bond between them, to being able to influence each other’s emotions or wordlessly communicate, sometimes it’s too much, their own baggage spilling across the sync and into each other’s head, setting off a spiral that can take days to clear.

“Are you sure about this? I mean, he’s your brother--”

“Who needs to know that I forgive him. I was so furious when he died, Dean, I--”

“Hey, I get it.” Dean pulls Cas closer. “There were times where I wished I could do the same thing.”

Cas pulls back enough to look at Dean and frown before burying his face back into Dean’s shoulder. “Everyone promises that it’ll be safe, and surely with the entire coven here, it’ll be safe enough, I just--”

Dean flops backwards, pulling Cas up onto the bed with him. “Worry less. If the dynamic duo say it’s foolproof--”

“It’s death magic, Dean. It’s…” Cas pauses, wiggles further up the bed so they’re face to face. “Gonna take a bit for the ‘not evil’ part to sink in.”

Dean shrugs. “Communicating with the dead is no more dangerous or evil than anything else you do. We do.” He grins and leans forward to kiss Cas lightly. “Not saying we should take it lightly or anything, but we’re okay.”

Cas nods fretfully before rolling off of Dean. “Do we have time for a nap?”

“Party’s not getting started until dark, so yeah.”

“‘K,” Cas mumbles, nestling in close to Dean. “Nap time then.”

* * *

Cas draws the boundaries that night, raising the circle-- with everyone else’s help-- to separate their working from the Outdwellers who reign beyond. He’s become more efficient, barely drawing on the collected energy before sealing the circle.

Dean smiles proudly when he’s done before letting Sam and Eileen do their thing-- calling the kindreds-- and Charlie and Jess complete the sacrifices. In the silence between, Dean does his own prayer and meditation, the same as he does every morning, relaxing into the familiar motions. The power spikes as he does so, safely drained away into one of his crystals.

Breathing out, he shakes himself and steps forward, kneeling in the center of the circle. It takes a few moments to find the way, slowly easing down the path to the afterlife and calling for Gabriel. It’s tedious, painstaking work-- the exact sort of thing that Dean’s spent decades learning how to do.

Despite being dead in another universe years before Dean even met Cas, Gabriel comes easily. “_Is Cassie alright?_”

_Pretty good for someone who’s dealing with shit he thought was a fairy tale on a daily basis._

Gabriel nods, his eyes alight with… something. Dean doesn’t think he means harm, but he’s really not sure. He hesitates, too long, and Gabe’s eyes lose their enthusiasm. _I owe him an apology, at the least. Probably much much more than that._

Dean screws up his face but nods. Holding out his hand, he grabs Gabriel and starts the laborious process of dragging him back to the land of the living. _You won’t be anything other than a ghost_, he points out, trying to keep hold of Gabe’s shifting limb. When he glances back, Gabe seems to be more bird than human, although he’s not sure how much of that is true.

_Ghost is better than him thinking I hate him. That everything that happened is his fault._ With a shudder and a jerk, he pushes forward, landing as a crow on Dean’s shoulder. _This should be easier._

It is, suddenly Dean is at the upper part of the path. _You’ll have to be quick._

Opening his eyes, he glances at Cas kneeling a few feet away and, pulling slightly on their lock, pushes what he brought with him into the clay poppet formed around a small piece of pumice.

Gabriel gathers over the doll, a slight glow that grows brighter as he gathers strength. He’s still more bird than human, but that doesn’t seem like an imposition at all. “Cassie?”

“Gabe.” Cas looks up at him, tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry. You needed my help and I--”

“Nothing, Cassie. I was a grown ass man making my own mistakes. You don’t actually think I blame you.”

Cas shrugs, glancing away. “Mom and Dad certainly did, and it was my couch.”

“Naomi and Chuck are, were, assholes who had no idea what to do with their kids when they didn’t turn into carbon copies of their cousins. Although why they would want those assholes--”

“Half-brothers, actually,” Cas mumbles. “Aunt Amara… it doesn’t matter.”

“Was their mother or adopted them?” Gabe asks, horrified.

“Adopted them for sure. Which certainly explains how little interaction we had with them.”

They both shudder, looking so much alike in that moment that it hurts. Gabe wavers slightly when Dean’s focus slips.

Sam and Charlie step forward, grabbing Dean’s shoulders and pushing power through the coven bonds. “Cas, we can’t keep him here for much longer,” Sam says over Dean’s head.

Cas swallows, nods. “I missed you and grieved your death and--”

“And my death was my own fault,” Gabe says firmly. “I was using again, hiding it from you, and didn’t think about how it would fuck you up. Or Naomi and Chuck.”

Cas snorts. “It gave them a chance to disown me completely. I’m not saying they were happy about it, but they definitely saw the upside pretty quick.”

Gabe wavers again, flickering rapidly between bird and human while the brightness of his shade dims dramatically. “Good luck, bro.” He jumps from the poppet, letting whatever forces there are guide him back to the afterlife.

Dean sags forward, out of Sam and Charlie’s hands, barely keeping himself from face planting into the dry grass. Out of the corner of his eye, Jess scoops up the poppet, tossing it into the fire as another sacrifice.

Breathing roughly, Cas wraps his arms around Dean and they just hold each other for a few minutes.

Eventually, the others step back, carefully ending the ritual and releasing the circle. It’s a shock, reverberating through them all.

“Thank you,” Cas whispers. “I… I didn’t know how much it was bothering me.”

Leaning forward, Dean kisses him firmly before pulling them both to their feet. “I’m glad it helped.” Raising his voice, he turns to face the rest of their family. “Now let’s eat!”


End file.
